English
deflection
Deflection comes from Latin dēflectō ‘to bend or turn downwards or away’, and goes back to flectō.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEflectō‘to bend, curve or bow’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēflectōas dēflectere‘to bend or turn downwards or away’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēflexiō
- Englishearliest quotation 1918deflection
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEflectō‘to bend, curve or bow’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēflectōas dēflectere‘to bend or turn downwards or away’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēflexiō
- Englishearliest quotation 1918deflection
Earliest quotation: 1918, H. G. Wells: “The next morning Oswald stopped short in the middle…”
Equivalent to deflect + -ion
The story
The non-etymological spelling deflection is taken from the present stem dēflect-, associated with collection, dissection, etc.
Linked words
through Latin flectō ‘to bend, curve or bow’
Today it means
noun The act of deflecting or something deflected.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin flectō / deflection